Process of making car-wheels, &amp;c.



Patented Nov. 26, |90l.- A-. A. STEVENSON. a CAB WHEELS, 8w.

2 sheets Sheet 1.

S. 'M, VAUCLAI PROCESS or m (Application N M el I n Patented Nov. 26, |90|. s. m. VAUCLAIN & A. A. STEVENSON.

PRUGESS OF MAKING CAR WHEELS, 8L0.

I (Apphcatlon fi Jan. 23, 1901.) I (No Model. 2 Sheets-She6t 2. l

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SAMUEL M. VAUOLAIN, OF PHILADELPHIA, AND AROHY A. STEVENSON, OF .BURNHAM, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNORS TO THE STANDARD STEEL WORKS, OF BURNI-IAM, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION OF PENN- SYLVANIA.

PROCESS OF MAKiNG CAR-WHEELS, 800.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 687,590, dated November 26, 1901.

Application filed January 23,1901. Serial No. 44,468. (No'modeh) To (1% whom it may concern: Be it known that we, SAMUEL M.VAUCLAIN,

, residing at Philadelphia,Philadelphia'county,

and ARCHY A. STEVENSON, residing at Burnham, Mifflin county, Pennsylvania, citizens of the United States, have invented certain Improvements in Processes of Manufacturing Wheels or Wheel-Centers, of which the following is a specification.

The object of our invention is to manufacture a steel wheel having sufficient strength to withstand the rough usage and the strains to which car-wheels are now subjected. It has been found that the ordinary cast-iron t 5 wheels tend to disintegrate under the heavy strains and pressures to which they are now subjected, owing to the increased weight and tonnage of both freight and passenger cars used on steam-roads.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a sectional View of a cast wheel-blank. Fig.

2 is a sectional view of the finished wheel made from the blank. Fig. 3 is a diagram View of the rim of the wheel enlarged, showing 2 5 the finished wheel in full lines and the wheelblank in dotted lines. Fig. 4 is a sectional view of one form of mold for making the blank shown in Fig. 1, and Fig. 5 is a View of one form of die for compressing the blank to the finished wheel as shown in Fig. 2.

In the manufacture of steel wheels it has been impracticable to make a perfect wheel with suflicient metal at the rim without making the wheel too heavy for ordinary use and 3 5 considerably increasing the expense. lVheels made of cast-steel are often imperfect, owing to the fact that pipes are formed in the thickened rim portion and hub, and these pipes are not detected until the tests are made or a fracture occurs, and for this reason the use of steel wheels has been condemned in numerous cases.

In carrying out our invention We make a casting in a mold-such, for instance, as the 115 mold shown in Fig. 4 in which the blank A, Fig. 1, has a hub-section a, a rim-section a, and a plate or spoke-section a. It will be noticed that the rim-section a, is much wider than the finished wheel shown in Fig. 2 and the finished wheel-so that while there is the same amount of metal in the one as in the other the blank is of such a thickness at the rim and hub that very little, if any, pipe will be present when the blank cools. The difference between the blank and the finished wheel is readily seen in the diagram Fig. 3, and we take this blank, reheat it, and place it between the dies (one form is shown in Fig.

5) and strike it a number of blows or subject it to hydraulic pressure, which will displace and compress the metal at the rim and hub, so that it will be a solid homogeneous mass of the shape illustrated in Fig. 2, the width of the rim and hub being decreased and the thickness increased.

'We have found by a number of. tests where a defective casting was made originally that by our process we were enabled to make a solid homogeneous Wheel which was able to withstand the severe usage to which a wheel at the present time is subjected.

We have shown and described a method by which the hub as well as the rim of the wheel is reduced. In some instances the rim only may be reduced, where the hub is so designed as to prevent piping, and also in some instances the hub may be only reduced, leaving the rim in its original condition.

It will be understood that while we have shown our invention as applied to the flanges and hubs of car-wheels the process may be used in manufacturing other wheels and rings, a cast-steel ring being made wide and thin and condensed and the width decreased and the thickness increased by subjecting the blank to pressure. 0

\Ve may allow the cast blank to cool and then reheat. the blank before subjecting it to pressure or we may take the cast-blank directly from the mold and subject it to pressure, if it is found desirable.

The mold shown in Fig. t forms the subject of a separate application for patent filed by Archy A. Stevenson of even date herewith.

blank and placing it between dies and subjecting the blank to pressure between the dies, whereby the metal of the rim is condensed, the thickness increased and the width decreased, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof we have signed our names to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

SAMUEL M. .VAUCLAIN. ARCHY A. STEVENSON.

WVitnesses:

ALBA B. JOHNSON, FRED WOOLLUEN. 

